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Last week, I wrote a post on my Other Blog about the emotion of grief, how I experience grief and how I cope with it.

This is why that post went up.

It was my Auntie Barb’s funeral today.

The family has been in Toronto for the past week – those of us coming from away arrived on the 1st – and we were there to see Auntie Barb pass. It’s been very hard; she was my father’s only remaining sibling, and the only biologically related adult from that generation remaining in Toronto (for the sibs and family that live here).

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So, as can be seen by the title, I’m going to be an aunt for the fifth time, come around about the end of August! Yay! Congrats to my brother and sister-in-law, and my younger niece – who announced to me via Skype last Sunday that she was going to be a big sister!

Here’s a picture taken of my nieces and nephews (including Milo) from when my brother’s family was visiting my sister’s on their way to Toronto (they moved there the end of May / beginning of June). From left to right:

Julia (my brother’s daughter): 5 years old
Danny (my sister’s older son): 3 years old
Zoe (my sister’s daughter): 7 years old
Milo (my sister’s younger son): 4 days old (at the time the picture was taken)

My nieces and nephews, taken May 29, 2013.

Aren’t they adorable?

(Posted with permission of their parents.)

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My middle sister gave birth to her third child – a boy, Milo Ulysses – yesterday. So Zoe and Danny now have a new brother (thankfully less than nine days after the original due date – only two), and Julia has a new baby cousin.

Here’s just saying: Welcome to the family, Milo!

‘Later!

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First of all, welcome, everyone, to the new site for tag’s Haven. I’d like to thank you all for following me here. Please, feel free to subscribe to my posts – the link is in the sidebar, just under my recent posts.

For those who are new and have followed a link here, Be Welcome! This is the blog where I talk about my life in general, moan and vent about the weather, and pre-publish my fanfic to get comments on it in order to improve it further before it goes to FFNet and tag’s Library for the wide world to see. 😉 (If you want to see the fanfic I’ve put up, links to all of it are available through the Fanfic page, as well as a bit of a summary.)

Over the next little while I’m going to be wandering around the ‘Net, changing the URLs of my blog everywhere I’ve put it up. But there is news, for anyone interested… see below. (Also, question re fic. Sorry, RK fans, not quite ready for updates yet, but have been reviewing and doing a bit more writing….)

So… I have apologies to make to everyone. I am terribly sorry that I’ve ended up getting so far behind on my weekly updates. It’s just… well, first I was busy working on getting ready for NaNoWriMo, then November hit and suddenly my stress levels went through the roof. Fans, picture a Sentinel starting to come online without a Guide. That’s what it felt like. My senses were starting to overwhelm me (random note: “whelm” means to cover with water, according to the Scrabble dictionary), particularly sight and hearing, and particularly at work. I’ve been wearing my yellow sunglasses and a bright pink (Fighting Breast Cancer pink) visor to work every day, to try to control the headaches from the CRT screens and the fluorescent lighting. And the noise… don’t get me started. Over the past week and a half or so, I’ve been using an earplug in my left ear (I keep the phone headset on my right) at work. It helps somewhat, but….

I ended up taking a week off work, doctor’s note included, at the end of November to the beginning of December, because my stress level was so high (taking sick days off work due to headaches and nausea, most of which could be put down to stress, and the rest of which could be put down to my senses, which contributed to the stress). It helped a huge amount, though my stress level still isn’t down where I’d like it to be. So, thanks to my lovely training supervisor (who is no longer my supervisor, except in a general sense during the late nights – I got moved to a new team at the beginning of December), I met with the scheduler, and I’ve cut back to 4 days a week, starting today – Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday – with slightly reduced hours and generally ending my shift at midnight (on the weekdays) or before 11 (on the weekends). (Except on the weekend after Christmas, which is bound to be busy – but given I’ve actually got Christmas Eve and Christmas off, I am not going to complain about that.)

On a lighter, better note, Imber is improving by leaps and bounds! She regularly comes up to the main floor of the house – she’s even been known to do so when I’m sleeping in my room – and while she still growls and snarls at Thor, the two of them spent last night in an uneasy truce (punctuated occasionally by said growls and snarls) on my bed. In fact, she is up here in the living room, where I’m typing this out, draped over my forearms asking for scritches, and generally making it hard to write. (Scratch that – Dad just came up, and made a remark, “Look at that baby!” and Imber rolled forward onto the arm of the chair. She doesn’t mind the other animals – except Thor – seeing her lying on her back, but Dad is a different matter. Not that she dislikes him, she’s just wary of someone so tall.)

So, back to the somewhat gloomy, but getting hopeful stuff: We’re looking to get me a local psychologist (though I’ve still got Dr. Garling on consult for a bit, in case it doesn’t work out) and I’ve got an appointment just before Christmas at the START Clinic, recommended to me by my Aspie friend (whom I’ve only seen once this past month! *pouts*), which will hopefully lead to a semi-rapid official diagnosis of Asperger’s. (The alternative is waiting 1-2 years to see a qualified psychiatrist, then waiting more time for the team to be assembled to render the diagnosis….) I’m also seeing an occupational therapist who has a very good method for working on getting me to focus on dealing with feeling unwell, and who is trying to get a consult with a specialist in sensory over-stimulation. (No guarantees on that one, but it’s worth a try!) Hoping the combination of these factors will get things resolved with reasonable rapidity – or at least get things on the road to being resolved. Dealing with mental health is, unfortunately, a years-long process.

Family news is, unfortunately, not as good. A few of you already know this (my family, namely), but my “adopted” aunt Gloria was admitted to hospital on Monday. She’s been fighting cancer (uterine and stomach, I believe) for several years, and it’s gotten fairly bad. They don’t think that she’ll live to see Christmas. She’s going to be going into Palliative Care as soon as there’s a bed free. Mom flew down to Toronto on Thursday, staying with Daphne’s friend, to see her, and is currently on her flight back here.

Hm. What other good news do I have to break the gloom?

Well, Daphne’s got her audiology hours finished, is waiting impatiently on the Praxis scores (they were supposed to be up last week), and has only her final anatomy exam, on Tuesday, to complete her anatomy course. She’s got paying work for the rest of the time she’s here in St. John’s, at least. I’ve had two interviews for more clerical type jobs (one with RONA, one with the Canadian Red Cross), and continue to send out resumes. Even with the problems I’ve been having, I’ve been able to continue to enjoy Scrabble Wednesdays, and this past week spent Tuesday evening (before and during making dinner) making cookies for the group. They were much appreciated by the family, at least, as well as the one member of the Scrabble group who decided to start nibbling before I had to leave at 12:30, and I found even the burnt ones quite addictive.

*sigh* I know I haven’t posted since the end of NaNo (which means you didn’t hear about the birth of my first nephew, Dec. 19th!), but right now, I need to rant, and I can’t chat to anyone about it. So if you want to read my rantings about today at work and the cleaners and people who can’t listen to directions, click on the link. Otherwise, hope you’re having a good winter!

My brother’s eldest child, Julia Ivy, was born early this morning. Haven’t yet spoken to the proud parents (they’re exhausted – my sister-in-law was in labour for over 24-hrs. before they did a C-section), but got the news from the proud grandmother. *g*

Well, it’s been a while since my last post here; been rather busy with various things, including visiting my sister and new niece in Halifax (went from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4). I’ll be putting up some pictures in a new gallery – probably this weekend, I expect.

Work is going well, though I must admit I can’t wait until next Thursday (last day of school until the second week of January – Yay!). Having a bit of a problem with strange dizzy spells, but they aren’t really interfering with work and I’m going to see the doctor about them next week.

In terms of writing… well, I haven’t done much. It seems the November blahs waited until after I came back from visiting Sonja and Zoë to pop up, and I’ve been pretty apathetic about it since. (It doesn’t help that I’ve been devouring a new fandom’s worth of fics, either…) However, I do plan to get back in the groove either today or tonight at work. And good news for those waiting for new parts to Edge of the Blade/RuroBatt and RuroSen: A Strange Partnership; I plan to post Chp. 2 of the latter by this weekend, and Chp. 3.3 of the former at some point next week.

Plus, I’ve got another new RK fic on the go – this one based (with permission – in fact, she’s beta-reading it for me, as usual) on an idea of Vathara’s. Major AU; it’s an science fiction scenario that has some… interesting elements to it. Including the fact that Saitô and Kenshin were on the same side in the war they fought… So far, I have the prologue, Chp. 1, and the beginnings of Chp. 2 written. Do people want me to start posting it now, or would you prefer to wait until I’ve got more done?

Other than that, I’ve seen Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and must say that it’s definitely a better quality movie than Prisoner of Azkaban was; while they did cut out scenes from the book, of course (the movie being over 2-1/2 hrs. long as it is), they managed to hit all the important parts. (Unlike PoA, which didn’t even establish the identities of the Marauders or what Sirius did to Snape with respect to Remus! Those are some of the most important parts of the book! Sorry, that just ticks me off, that they left that out…)

And on Thursday, going to see Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with my adopted aunt. Looking forward to it; that was one of my favourites as a child.

Back at the end of September/beginning of October, the screen of my Titanium G4 PowerBook (laptop) somehow managed to become mostly detached from the body of the laptop; it was (and is) being held on by only a few wires on either side. (In case anyone’s wondering, that’s part of the reason there hasn’t been much in the way of posts from me of late.) So I’ve been trying to arrange to get money to buy a new one since then.

Well, today I got a call from Mom & Dad (who are currently with my sister in Halifax – more on that below), to say that they had agreed to buy me (or at least pay for) a new computer for me for Christmas – the one I wanted! So I went out and got that today. Current status: I’m moving my files and extra programs over to the new computer. It’ll probably (hopefully) be done by tomorrow night. (At least with my network, I don’t have to burn everything onto CDs and then copy them over – I can just take the files directly from my old computer and put them on my new one.)

The only other news is that I’m still waiting (mostly patiently) for the sister in Halifax to give birth to my first niece or nephew. She is (understandably enough), I’m told, somewhat less than patient at this point… it’s getting rather unpleasant for her. The baby was due 8 days ago (on Hallowe’en); and while she’s glad she doesn’t have to worry about Hallowe’en birthday parties, at this point, she’d just like to have the kid and get it over with.

Anyway, that’s all for now; for those of you following my RK stories, look for RuroBatt/Edge of the Blade Chp. 3.2 sometime next week.

Well, it was my aunt’s birthday yesterday. Went home from work, got some writing done, then went over to her apartment to give her the gift from myself and two of my sibs. Had a nice chat with her and got to relax for a bit before returning home to sleep.

Going to an Irish Tenors concert with her and one of my adopted aunts tonight – I’m rather looking forward to it. Hoping that I won’t have to leave for work until after the concert is over and done with… Will probably write an entry on the concert either tonight or tomorrow.

Now, I know someone wanted me to get cracking on posting RuroSen, which I certainly don’t mind doing – but I need to have an issue resolved first. Any Sentinel fans, I welcome responses to the following:

Opening Statement: All right, we know that (in fanon definitely, and there’s more than a hint of it even in canon) Guides serve as anchors for their Sentinels’ senses – a baseline, as it were. Or at least, that’s the variation of fanon that I’m using.Problem: In what way can a Sentinel anchor a Guide? Please note that I do not want to use the “Guide as empath with no barriers” variation – I’m trying to do something else. What Guide traits (and/or traits that Blair and Kenshin have in common, for those fans of both) would require a Sentinel’s help to control?Notes: Any and all help is appreciated, and credit will be given for any suggestions/help I use.

Well, I’m working tomorrow – 12 hr. shift. Volunteered for it, since our weekend person is taking the day off (the week before she leaves, actually), and am hoping to get at least a bit of creative work done among the patrols and keeping an eye on the people there for the Fulford debate…

Plus, my knee is buggered all to hell right now. I occasionally have this problem where my kneecap(s) decide(s) it/they don’t like the position they’re supposed to be in, so it/they shift slightly. Not fun for walking places… and even less fun for handling stairs (of which I have to walk up 2-1/2 flights to get to my apartment). Luckily, it’s not too bad at the moment, and having a cane handy is pretty much enough to deal with it.

Had breakfast with my “adopted” aunt this morning – met her after work. Had a nice, long chat (we spent about 2 hrs. there, all told) and she told me all about the 2 weeks in Costa Rica visiting my parents that she just came back from on Monday. She had a great time, and it sounds like it was as relaxing for her as it was for me (which was definitely nice). And apparently the cat toys I picked up in an effort to replace the knitted mouse that Gypsy (the new puppy) took a liking to were a real success – she said all four of the cats loved them. (And given that only two of them played with the knitted mouse, that’s not bad!)

Okay, that’s about it for the random ramblings… got to have something to eat, take my tablets, relax for a bit, and head back to bed so I can head into work for 11 tomorrow morning…